My Story

Hi, I'm Terry Callahan. By day I'm a bedside med-surg RN — and I absolutely love it. I started Secret Shelfie for one simple reason: nothing like it existed.

I couldn't stand the thought of beautiful pillows getting tossed onto cluttered chairs, benches, or worse, the floor, every single night. That was my whole motivation. Honestly, starting a business is worse than buying a boat. I only did it because I'm stubborn — and my husband is very patient.

We live on a little lake in rural Kentucky. We believe in supporting local business, making things in America, and doing things the right way. My story is a long one, so no pressure to read it all. I just want you to know I'm a real person, and I sincerely want to make your life a little better — one pillow at a time.

How it started:

Back in 2000, I was restoring a 1909 house in the historic district of Asheville, NC, and I had the most gorgeous beaded pillows on my bed. Old houses leak coal dust forever, plus we had two cats — the floor was not an option. The blanket chest didn't work either because the pillows just slid right off onto the floor.

One night I was lying in bed staring at a rectangular print on my wall and thought: what if that frame folded down into a shelf for my pillows? This was before you could find anything on the internet. I searched Bed Bath & Beyond and beyond, but nothing existed.

At the time I was selling lumber to builders, raising two teenagers on my own, remodeling houses, serving as assistant scoutmaster, and sitting on the board of the Homebuilders Association. I had zero interest in starting a business. The pillows would have to wait.

In 2004 I left construction for real estate, hoping for less stress and more security. I got both, but I also got a front-row seat to how people really live — the design flaws, the too-much-furniture, the clutter blindness. I started leaning minimalist, but what I really learned is this: everything needs its own place. That's the key to a beautiful space. And pillows at night didn't have a place.

The Great Recession in 2008 changed everything. Houses just stopped selling. In January 2011, after two tough years, I moved to Kentucky, married my best friend, and went back to school to become a nurse. My art degree with a minor in interior design and my drafting and design degree were part of who I am, but I needed something practical. I never wanted to be unemployed again.

I started nursing in 2014. By 2019 we'd added a master bedroom. We had dogs and cats and wood floors, and when I bought beautiful extra pillows to prop my head on at night, it was déjà vu — still nowhere to put them. I had room for chairs and benches, but those empty surfaces just magically attracted clutter out of my husband's hands. I searched again, this time online. Still no wall-mounted, fold-out pillow shelf. So I built a prototype. That's how the first Secret Shelfie was born.

That April my husband talked me into pitching at Shark Tank in Louisville, prototype in hand. I got the callback — the long video and 30-page application — but with no sales, website, or production yet, it didn't go further. I wasn't upset. It gave me the push to keep going.

By February 2020 I was actually growing, then March 2020 hit. As a nurse I was an essential worker, so Secret Shelfie went on the shelf for a couple of years.

In 2023 I tried to relaunch and so much had changed — I had to relearn social media, farmhouse was out, and manufacturing needed different machinery. We'd moved, so I had to build a shop. In 2025 I found a wonderful Amish cabinet shop to handle manufacturing so I could focus on marketing while still working full-time as a nurse.

And here we are in 2026. Thank you for all the kind words from people I don't even know. I'll try not to let you down.

— Terry